Our research on human rights is divided into five main areas:
Human Rights
We include companies who have subsidiaries or businesses in countries which we call 'oppressive regimes'.
This list of countries was last updated in 2006 using research from Human Rights Watch, War on Want,
Survival International, Amnesty International and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
Also taken into account are criticisms relating directly to human rights abuses - such as forcing people off
their land to build a pipeline or hiring other agencies which have perpetuated human rights abuses.
Pornography distributors or publishers also appear here.
Worker's Rights
In 1911 a fire in a garment factory in New York killed 500 workers. Workers were working in inhumane,
unhealthy conditions and poorly paid. You'd think, almost 100 years later that things might have improved,
but workers worldwide are still subject to sweatshop conditions.
In 2005 a fire in Bangladesh killed 250 people. The doors of the factory were locked so they could not escape.
In this category, we include all cases of workers abuses - whether it's being forced to work over 60 hours a
week, low wages, cases of harassment or a company ignoring health & safety legislation.
Supply Chain Policy
Many of the products that we buy are manufactured overseas in factories which may not even by owned by the
company itself. Even so, we think that the companies ought to be responsible for the kinds of conditions
those workers find themselves in, so we ask all companies sourcing from overseas to supply us with a 'supply
chain policy'.
This is a document set out by a company detailing how the workers in their supply factories
must be treated. Like environmental policies, these used to be documents with broad statements about "abiding
by country laws". Nowadays, the supply chain policy can be a sophisticated document outlining lots of different
conditions and may also include results of factory audits. Companies which are members of 'multi-stakeholder
initiatives', such as the UK's ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) have to abide by the ETI's own code.
Companies making certified fairtrade products will receive a top rating from us in this category.
Unfortunately, the existence of a good code doesn't mean that it is actually being adhered to and so we can
find huge contradictions, so that companies with the best policies sometimes receive the most criticisms for
workers rights abuses.
Irresponsible Marketing
This column highlights companies that have marketed their products in a way that has been criticised for
causing physical harm, or is detrimental to health. The most famous company that has consistently been
criticised in this area is Nestle which has been criticised for the way that it markets its baby milk products.
Other examples of irresponsible marketing include drug companies which have been criticised for putting
products on the market even after negative results.
Armaments
This column not only includes companies that supply weaponry to the
armed forces, but also those supplying any goods or services to the
armyed forces (though the severity of the rating is different!).
The sale of handguns is also included in this column, which is why you
might find a famous US owned supermarket receiving a bad rating here.
Download a pdf of the full detailed definitions of all the categories
we use to rate companies.
